TREVOR’S WEEK: We deal with up to 300 casualties in care at a time

A big thank you to our volunteers for working so hard over the past few months. Our ambulances have driven almost 10,000 miles in the last month alone!

Our rescuers have been working non-stop rushing from Hastings to Brighton and to Eastbourne, Crowborough and Burgess Hill and everywhere in between.

They have been working through their lunch and at times not getting home to eat until the early hours of the morning.

Our care team are working seven days a week from early in the morning till late at night, and when babies are in up during the night feeding every three hours at times, or every 15 minutes during the day.

A big thank you to Katie, Chris and Kathy who regularly worked 15 to 20 hour days, going well beyond their daily roles going out on rescues, meeting rescuers to help triage, and provide emergency first aid, at all times of the day or night, as well as our vet Mike and Lindsay and all our rescuers and volunteers who have been there to help us deal with up to 300 casualties in care at a time.

I know everyone is very tired at the moment but we are getting there and the end of the busy season is starting to approach.

Thank you to everyone at WRAS and to those who donate and support us as we are a charity.

None of this would be possible without the donations coming in, so please support your local wildlife rescue to help then keep going at what is a very stressful time of year.

What a great team we have at WRAS.

Thank you to East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service for helping rescuer Chris deal with a crow entangled on an aerial on top of a house in Eastbourne last week.

The crow is now in care being treated for an injured leg but will hopefully make a full recovery.

We have had another one of our released hedgehogs come back into care. This time from Heathfield.

She was called Chewbacca, and originally came into care in autumn 2015 too small to hibernate, and was released back in the garden where originally found in Heathfield back in the spring.

On Tuesday last week she came back into care after a dog found her giving birth on the lawn.

In these situations you need to be very careful and avoid too much disturbance.

This is why we set up our hedgehog maternity unit at Kathy’s home in Uckfield, which is where Chewbacca and her babies went.

Well, Kathy is pleased to announced that after leaving her for more than five days she ventured into Chewbacca’s nest and found that two of the babies had survived.

They are big for their age and very strong.

We did not expect her to accept the babies to be honest after all she had gone through and the babies had not yet been fed by her.

Hopefully having been in care before will have helped her settle.

Fingers crossed they continue to do well.

These two young jays were taken on from Bexhilland& Hastings Wildlife Rescue.

Our orphan team have been working hard trying to save them as they were very poorly.

Sadly one died. The other is picking up and hopefully will make a full recovery.

We work very closely with Bird Aid, which takes on all the young gulls from us and some of our adults.

About a third of all gull chick calls have resulted in us being able to return them to roof tops this year.

It’s nice to see Bird Aid have managed to release their first group of 19 gulls fledglings back to the wild which is great news.

WRAS care team and our vet Mike were called to the hospital in the early hours of the morning to a fox that been hit by a car in Isfield.

Rescue manager Chris rushed to the fox where the caller had waited.

On arrival the caller pointed out where the fox had gone into the bushes.

Chris and the caller located the fox and managed to secure it and get it into the ambulance.

The casualty was then rushed back to the hospital where Mike was waiting.

Mike sedated the fox, who was suffering from a broken back leg an open wound on his rump and grazes on his limbs.

Mike sutured the wounds and cleaned the others. Eventually just after 4am the fox was settled and bedded down for the night.

Sadly the fox started fitting and despite rushing the fox back to the vets it passed away.

Another road casualty young fox come into care this week and had to be rushed to Henley House Vets in Uckfield for emergency surgery which sadly resulted in one of his rear legs having to be amputated.

The cub is recovering really well and is now expected to recover well enough for release back to the wild.

Rescuers Kai and Chris were called to reports of a duck caught in a mesh fence on a pond in Falmer. Kai and Chris loaded the ambulance with the boats and water rescue gear and headed over.

On arrival the caller was waiting and pointed out where the duck was.

It became clear he was well and truly stuck.

Kai and Chris inflated the boat donned their life vests and rowed over to the island.

Kai went ashore and easily unhooked the little one and placed it into a pillow case for safe transport.

Back at the WRAS’s hospital the duck had its wounds treated and first aid given.

After tucking into some dinner, it was bedded down for the night to get some rest.

Sadly it seems these may have been dumped on the pond as they look to be ornamental or domestic ducks.

Thank you to the EI foundation students in Eastbourne who have been raising money for WRAS at their summer fete and have sent us £120 donation.

Thank you to everyone who visited us at the Uckfield Big Day Out last weekend too. Thank you to everyone who was involved, very much appreciated by us and the animals.

Rescuers Chris and Laura rushed to south Chailey after a call regarding a tawny owl that had been possibly hit by a car.

At first rescuers were hopeful but on further assessment the injuries were too severe and our vet Mike kindly agreed to see it just before 2am. Sadly the owl has had to be put to sleep.

A natterer’s bat was found ground unable to fly in Heathfield.

Rescuers attended on site and took the bat to WRAS’s Casualty Centre where I was able to assess its condition.

The bat was dehydrated, and had a few puncture wounds to the wing membranes and some swelling around the wings but nothing appeared broken.

The bat has then delivered up to Jenny Clark MBE at the Sussex Bat Hospital at Forest Row for specialist help. We have also had this Buzzard come into care after being found in the church road, Horsted Keynes.

Rescuer Daryl picked up the casualty and delivered him to our Casualty Centre.